The nitty gritty of life as a first-time mommy. Everything but the kitchen sink.

It’s Called Hardwood for a Reason

As you know, Garrett has been teething around the clock. He wakes up in the middle of the night now and twists and turns. After a week of this, I was on the verge of not being able to function and Bryan actually soothed him back to sleep the last couple of nights so that I could catch some z’s- that is, until last night.

Garrett was in bed at his usual time and I stayed up waiting for Bryan to get home- we needed to talk about our ‘anniversary dinner’ and figure out what exactly would be on the agenda. Once home, we chatted and then I decided to go on to bed, so I could get a good night’s sleep in before having to work today. That was at midnight. Thinking back, it was one of those nights were the minute my head hit the pillow I was out.

Next thing I remember, I was somewhere in between a dream and Bryan yelling ‘OH NO!’ To which, I became panick strickened and confused. It was nearly 4 a.m. in the morning. I don’t remember the dream I was having, I just remember that the next two hours were the scariest and longest hours of my life.

Garrett had managed to climb down to our feet, across his father’s legs and you got it, smack down onto the hardwood floors. I have said it a thousand times, it was going to be my worst nightmare and it was. I simply didn’t believe it would be this soon, nor on his 6 month old birthday and our 1 year anniversary- all rolled into one.

The moment was painful for all three of us. Bryan scooped him into his arms as he cried bloody murder and I watched helplessly. I wanted to nurse him and hold him and make it all better- but I was also worried about ‘what if’s’. Once Bryan had him calmed down, I took him into my arms and started to nurse him, but he gagged and couldn’t seem to get the nursing idea down at the moment. I realized maybe we shouldn’t have moved him until we had turned the lights on or maybe he had a concussion and then I thought, well, what in the world do you do for that and how do you know if they have one? So many questions flooded my mind- How hard did he hit? Where did he hit? Will he be ok? Why didn’t I wake up? Why didn’t Bryan? How did he get to the end of the bed? Why was he going to the end of the bed, he never does that? I’m still questioning everything as I type and I still have a huge lump in my throat from it all.

After he gagged, I had Bryan pull out our ‘family child book’ and look up ‘head injuries’. It seemed like an hour it took Bryan an hour to do this….I kept asking, “why can’t you find it….you need your glasses.” I was distraught. Finally, Bryan made it to the page on head injuries and he read to me aloud what to do and what to watch for. (He should be woken up every few hours and watched carefully over the next 24-48 hours, especially if they act lethargic, are pale, sick or complaining of a severe headache while not acting like themselves.) He’s a baby, how can he tell us? This was excruciating.

At this point it was almost 5 a.m. and I wasn’t for sure how, I was going to go back to sleep, let alone him. I cradled him next to me and let him nurse for what seemed forever. He was having that ‘feeling of falling’ off and on as he went back to sleep. I held my hand at his belly making sure his breathing wasn’t labored and hadn’t stopped for almost an hour. I then began to cry silently. I had let my baby down and he was in pain because of me. I had become too comfortable and there were tons of signs! He almost fell off the couch yesterday and even managed to get further on the bed twice while I was simply dressing him. I should have known!

I’m not for sure how I went back to sleep myself, but I did and this morning it all seemed like such a bad dream. It wasn’t though. I have been searching for a bruise, however nothing as surfaced yet. Hopefully, that is a good thing. He seems to be fine, too. I certainly remember that thud very loudly. It chills me even thinking about it.

It is decided, his crib will be making an appearance in our bedroom tonight. See, that was some of the reason he was sleeping with us from the get go- his crib is all the way upstairs. We have canceled our plans for tonight for a later date so that we can ‘watch’ him and are going to have a nice candlelit dinner at home and be thankful that we are a family.

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4 Responses

Oh, I’m so sorry! I know exactly how you feel, because I’ve been there. I remember the first time Sammy fell off the bed, onto the hardwood floors. I was home alone and turned my back for a second to get something out of a closet, and heard a *thud*. I turned around and he wasn’t on the bed, and a second later the wailing started. I was home alone and felt just like you did – what do I do? I ended up calling the doctor’s office – it was after hours, but they called me back right away – and it made me feel a lot better. They asked some questions, one of which was, how far did he fall? I assume my bed is about the same height as yours, and the doctor said it’s *very unlikely* that a fall from that height would do any damage beyond a bruise – hopefully that eases your mind a bit.

Later, a friend told me, “they all have to do that at least once” and it’s been true for both of my kids. They were both around six months old, and both fell onto a hardwood floor. So even though it’s really scary, you’re in good company. 😛

You are SO not alone! Nearly every baby experiences one of those falls at one time or another. It’s a terrible feeling, and a terrible sound…and it DOESN’T make you terrible parents. 🙂 I hope he’s doing okay the rest of the day today.

Just like your friends said-we have all been through something similar. And I am really sure if we can get our parents to admit it, we were dropped, fell, or jumped on our head at some point of our babyhood. I mean-hey, Scott hit me on the forehead with a baseball bat! I know (or think) I turned out ok. When Emily ‘rolled’ (aka Jumped) off her changing table onto her forehead lots of moms wrote me about their much more horrible experience. Of course it made me see that mine wasn’t as bad since I didn’t have to call 911 or go to the ER! But I still didn’t stop shaking for about 10 hours-I cried more than her! At least now you have that over with and you know how hard his head is and that he is a tough little guy! Keep us posted on how he is doing now!!!